Would you ever pay a LOT of money for a face up?

Well, first... define 'a lot'. For me, it's worth paying for, because I have tried, and I am still not good at it. I have a lot of dolls presently without one because I stink at them, even though I keep practicing all the same. I haven't really set a price limit, but that's because anything I can't afford when it's available is automatically 'too expensive' for that time. I'd probably have to draw the line at $150 or that general range, depending on what is included, and how much I like the artist's work. There's one person I want to send some of my dolls to that does charge that much -- but includes considerably more, from what I can tell, than many others do in their default service, so it would be more of a bargain than it may seem on the surface.

 

For me it is not so much the cost of the individual face up but the overall cost of the doll. I have set a strong limit for myself and I wont go over it. Even if I really loved a doll I dont think I could bring myself to go over my limit!

 

I like doing my own faceups, however if I were unable or didn't have the talent for them I would absolutely be willing to pay a good chunk of change to have someone incredible do it for me.

I don't think it's unreasonable for artists who do absolutely breathtakingly beautiful work to charge what they do, if you ever have the pleasure of looking at such a faceup in person it really is amazing.

Can't be stingy about these dolls, I mean if I've already spent 600+ on a doll what's another 100? hehe

 

Would you ever pay a LOT of money for a face up? No I try and keep it within reason esp. if artist is also doing the body work.

Does it depend on how the face up looks? I have never been to specific on my faces, just style of eyebrows and shades of color on lips as well as what color brows should be. I haven't yet had a minimee head kept long enough to get faced up. But that would be only reason to go crazy.

Would you ever attempt to do a face up yourself? No way, not enough talent let alone the supplies.

What's your price limit for face ups? For SD $60 and for my LTF I pay $30-40 depending on if freckles are involved.

 

When I had more of a stable income I did. To me a lot is anything over $80, I paid over $100 before. I don't remember the exact amounts though.

If someone has skill they definitely deserve to be compensated well for their time, effort and talents. There's loads of lovely face up artists out there. ^__^

 

Yes, i would pay a lot of money if i like the style of the artist and if his works confince me

 

Paying a lot for a face up scares me because it can never be permanent.

On the other hand, if I paid a lot for an actual permanent face up I'd be HORRIFIED if I didn't like it!

Personally, doing face ups, or having my girlfriend do my face ups for me, is more personal and I like the result better anyway.

 

Not really. I have the skills to paint so I think I wouldn't fail at making a good face-up. Besides there are a lot of tutorials on the internet, and the official face-ups get worn off too so I'd have to repaint them anyway.
(And I can also search for references of dolls or even real people's face ups that could help)

 

I have a doll that I want to send to a certain faceup artist, however that artist isn't taking commissions atm and I have been waiting for almost a year now (I'm the kind who can wait forever for an artist to open) however I'm starting losing patient as I missed playing with my doll.

so 2 day ago I contacted another faceup artist who I know she isn't taking commissions (but I tried my luck anyway) she agreed to do faceup on my girl & her style is somewhat similar to first artist one I wanted, but her price is $350.. her style is beautiful but I find it over priced : (

there's always chance a faceup will get damaged and no faceup will remain forever, so my questions are:
- is it Ok to pay this much for just a 'faceup'? do you limit your budget for a faceup? what is the highest you paid? and lastly how do you choose which faceup artists to send your dolls to?

for me I paid $140 (and that's without PP fees & shipping) and I want this to remain as my highest to pay for faceup. I choose artists based on 1- how good they draw eyebrows and color mouth (then I look for rest of their works and see if it's really what I want), 2- or if the faceup artist style is simply what I seek for my dolls' look.

 

I'm willing to pay up to 150 including pp and shipping...
But I think over that is just way too much.

 

I think that is way too much, there are some amazing faceup artists around who charge a quarter of that price. It is just my opinion but for that price you could buy another doll.

 

Er...if I can buy another doll for the price someone is asking me to pay to paint their face, I'd go elsewhere or learn how to do it myself. Goodness.

With that in mind I wouldn't pay a whole lot for face ups in general. I tend to look at what the companies charge and use that as a baseline.

 

I'm on a tight budget, and I am planning to get a faceup for my 1/6 boy soon. I only want something very simple and natural. I don't want to spend over $25 + shipping both ways. That may seem cheap, but it's all I can afford right now.

 

I wouldn't personally pay that much, but that's because I generally do my own face-ups. I might commission someone if I really really can't get a doll's look right, but in general, I much prefer the bonding experience of painting my own dolls. Whether it's worth it, though, is up to you. I could imagine paying that much for a sketch or painting by an artist I love, and essentially face-ups are art, so you'd have to decide how much that art is worth to you.

 

The last artist I commissioned was $95 + ship, but I would only pay that much for the right combination of skill and dependability. I've since learned to faceup myself, which is also expensive but I like knowing I have less immediate hoops to jump through if a doll needs a repaint. I think it's difficult to balance wanting the artist to break even on their hours of work (not to mention materials used) and the generally temporary nature of faceups. Maybe $300 would seem reasonable if the paint would never rub, but that's not how our dolls work.

 

$350 seems excessive, however if he or she is not taking commissions perhaps it's inflated in order to reflect that?
Regardless, I cap out at $150 and that usually includes some sort of ornate tattoo.

 

Hmmm....Personally, I think US$350 is quite expensive for faceup. But, it may be worth it if this artist is very popular and very hard to get him/her to do custom faceup for you.

I vividly remembered that I paid some professional artists who normally charge one SD head for "US$150 + shipping fee from me to artist + shipping fee from artist to me". But, total cost for faceup will be higher if an artist lives very far from where you stay due to higher international shipping fees. Some artists charge the removal makeup fee for US$5~15 and charge eyelashes fee if you don't include yours.

Well, I think faceup cost strongly depends on how much it's worth to an owner. For me, I'm very picky about faceup styles especially eyebrow shapes, lower eyelashes, and the style of lips paint because I don't usually bond well with a doll who has certain faceup style that doesn't fit my preferences. That's why some of my dolls come and go due to their faceup styles. But, I only keep a few of them whose makeup styles that fit me very well. I admit I'm kind of perfectionist especially for faceup...

 

Maybe they quoted that price to scare you off since you said they aren't taking commissions at this time? Sometimes the exorbitant price works better than having to carry on a long conversation when the answer is still going to be no. I personally would not pay that much no matter how good the work. I know that sounds horrible but that's almost the cost of a really good doll as has already been mentioned!

 

I think my limit for a face-up on a larger doll would be $60, and that's only if I absolutely can't live without it. Generally I look for artists who charge in the $50 range for the larger heads and I've been perfectly pleased with their work. Dang, I've worked with artists who charged even half that much because they were just opening up shop and wanted some more examples for photos and I've come out with amazing results!

I realize that these are artists and they need to be paid fairly, but I'm on a budget too. I'm perfectly happy to help someone out in getting their shop off the ground if that's what they're looking for, and more often than not their work is still just as beautiful. Face-ups aren't permanent, and I think that plays a big factor for me. If they were more difficult to remove and less easily scratched or damaged I think I'd be more willing to pay extra. But since they can be so easily rubbed or wiped off, it's harder for me to want to pay the really big bucks. Plus, I personally just don't find anything that isn't jaw-droppingly detailed and intricate to be worth $350.

 

I thought that too, I could buy an SD head with that price :\

for me I can't do faceups (don't have time or materials to learn), so of course I would look for artists

(in my opinion and taste) this artist style is beautiful and I find she can do a very natural faceups & bringing the best in sculpt expression, but still I find her pricing is way too much, and I decided not to commission her even if I believe she will make my doll just the way I want her, because in the end faceups never last forever

yes I wouldn't mind paying this much if the faceup will never get scratches/damaged, but it will (even if you're careful when handling your dolls, faceups still delicate and won't last)

I'm not sure if she accepted commissions for other people before, I was looking at her style and found it exactly what I want for my doll so I asked her if she can do faceup on my doll, but then even if I liked her faceup I won't pay this much for it (also if you would add fees and shipping costs, the price might hit $400 so I decided not to commission her)